In January, the cost of mailing a first class one ounce letter moves up to 46¢. People with Forever stamps won’t have to worry about purchasing additional stamps to make up the new rate. But this made me think.

One of the things I liked about past rate increases is the number of interesting covers that are created. Mainly these are overpaid or underpaid covers. With the use of Forever stamps now, these covers are going to be almost extinct.

There are going to be people using up discount postage that will be affected and they may create an underpaid or overpaid cover. But with the philatelic connection, it’s just not the same as obvious commercial covers of the past which were created by ordinary citizens.

A collection of covers showing interesting uses during a rate change would make for an interesting and challenging collecting specialty. Unfortunately, the Forever stamps will bring that collection to an abrupt halt. There are going to be few, if any, such covers with future First class rate changes.

In fact, if you can find a non-philatelic rate change cover in January, you may very well have a rare piece of postal history!